courses

NATURE BASED LEADERSHIP TRAINING

Learn how you and your individual gifts can be of service to the community and the Earth at this time of great change.

A person is smiling under a shelter made from natural materials on a nature retreat as part of the nature based leadership training program at CERES

CERES X NATURE'S APPRENTICE

We’re partnering with Nature’s Apprentice to offer an immersive program that will create the kind of earth-based leadership and resilience we will need in the coming decades.

What will you find IN THE NATURE-BASED LEADERSHIP TRAINING?

A person covered in mud rewilding at CERES Nature based leadership training

REWILDING

Tap back into your own wild wisdom that so many of us have forgotten.

A person stays dry under a shelter made from natural materials at a retreat in CERES NBLT

Earth-living skills

Learn essential survival skills: Shelter, fire making, weaving and more.

A person put their hand to a gigantic ancient tree trunk on a CERES NBLT retreat

Deep Nature Connection

Find belonging in nature through your senses: reading landscapes, tracking, bird languages and more.

Two people laugh together in nature on a CERES Nature based leadership training retreat

Cultivate Community

Learn to create a culture of connection through art, storytelling, peacemaking and more.

A person leads a group on retreat at CERES nature based leadership training

Facilitation skills

Develop mentoring and group facilitation skills and experience.

A person looks at sunshine through a gap in their hands

Find your purpose

Explore your ‘ecological niche’ and unique purpose.

A person tells a story to a group of listening people at CERES

Storytelling

Humans make meaning through story. Explore the narratives that shape our world.

A person walks through a creek on a CERES retreat in the nature based leadership training

Immersive retreats

Begin the program with a nature immersion retreat outside Melbourne.

You’ll be mentored by

Claire Skye Claire Skye  (Dunn) is a writer, speaker, mother, barefoot explorer, rewilding facilitator and founder of Nature’s Apprentice. Claire is passionate about human rewilding and believes that a reclaiming of our ecological selves and belonging is key to regenerating wildness on the planet. 

For the last 15 years, Claire has been facilitating individuals to dive deeply into the mysteries of nature and psyche through the pathways of deep nature connection, ancestral earth skills, deep ecology, ecopsychology, soulcentric nature-based practice, village building, dance, ceremony and contemporary wilderness rites-of-passage.

Claire is the author of memoirs My Year Without Matches, which tells the story of her year living wild, and Rewilding the Urban Soul which explores how we might embody wild consciousness within a modern city context. Claire lives beside the Birrarung on the outskirts of Melbourne where she lovingly tends her family, her garden and her own wild heart.

Sieta Beckwith Bio Pic

Sieta Beckwith is the Narrative Director at CERES in Melbourne. Her role is to connect all the many stories of CERES across regenerative farming programs, environmental education, social enterprises and community participation, into an impactful, unified narrative. Together, these stories aim to change the systems that no longer serve our world, and help people fall in love with the earth again.

Sieta has worked for 15 years in strategic communications roles, assisting purpose-led organisations to discover, share and live their deeper values. Through her work, Sieta aims to respond to the question, “What are we longing for?” and contribute to building a new story of humanity that is regenerative and hopeful. She finds joy in bringing together small groups of humans from all ages and backgrounds to explore heart-centred practice, and to learn how to live well together through times of great change. Sieta was born on Noongar country but has made her home on Wurundjeri land and loves to rock climb, dance, weave baskets and have conversations with trees.

Dan smiled while participating in an activity on retreat

Daniel Skye is a carpenter and father of three living in Warrandyte. Dan’s introduction to earth based ceremony was at age 16, and since then ceremony, sweat lodge and Vision Quest has been a powerfully consistent thread and guiding principle in his life, both as participant and more recently as a trained Vision Quest guide. Since he was a child, Dan has nurtured a deep love and curiosity for the wild world. Conversations with the “wild other” are part of his everyday vernacular, and tracking a way of life. 

Dan is currently apprenticing to the arts of storytelling, song, deep authentic relating, wandering, and the mythic in wild landscapes. You will often find him tending his garden, catching stories from friends, baking bread, running the trails of his mountain home, and spending sweet time with his children, and partner Claire.

How It'll work

The course takes a hybrid approach to curriculum, including nature-based experiential activities in the outdoors, classroom discussions, online readings and commentary, and personalised projects.

Beginning with a nature immersion retreat outside Melbourne, the program will cover six core modules that seek to explore both the philosophy and practice of nature-based leadership.

While each module will turn our lens to a different facet of Nature Based Leadership, our experiential face-to-face time will have a consistent thread of core routines of nature connection and earth skills throughout the program

Each module will involve a set of recommended texts and readings, experiential processes and exploration of a broader context that embeds it into work for the world. The modules will be woven together into the retreat, and studied in more detail during the weekly workshops, webinars and through the online learning platform.

In 2025, we are offering shorter options for the training program. This is a 3-month program starting in February 2025. The year-long program will resume in 2026.

  • 1 x week-long nature-immersion retreat (within 2 hours of Melbourne)
  • 8 x in-person workshops (Fridays in Melbourne)
  • 3 x online evening webinars (Wednesday eves. Recorded)
  • 1 x personal mentoring
  • Readings and resources for each module will be provided through an interactive online learning platform that you will be expected to engage with and reflect upon.

Download the 2025 course guide

See a detailed breakdown of course content and the schedule for the 2025 session.

this course is for you if

course pricing options

Tuition includes in-person workshops, online seminars, camping and catering on retreats, program supplies and mentoring. A limited number of partial scholarships are available on application.

Early bird

For people who sign up before 9 Dec 2024.
$ 3,250
  • Payment plans are available on request

Standard

Standard placement
$ 3,750
  • Payment plans are available on request
Popular

PAY IT FORWARD

For corporate placements or those who can afford to pay it forward
$ 4,750
  • Payment plans are available on request

Alumni Success Stories

Hear from our NBLT alumni as to how they’ve gone on to put their new leadership skills to use.

We’re currently working on collecting these stories, if you are a past alumni – we’d love to hear from you.

Frequently asked questions

What is your refund policy?

CERES reserves the right to cancel workshops due to insufficient numbers.

If we cancel the workshop you will be entitled to a 100% refund, or you may choose to transfer to another date, subject to availability.

If you decide to withdraw 7 or more days prior to the workshop date CERES will retain a 10% administration fee.

If you decide to withdraw less than 7 days prior to the workshop date CERES will retain 100% of your workshop fee.

Should CERES have to cancel the course due to Government changes relating to the COVD-19 response, we will let you know as soon as possible. Affected participants will be sent a notification that includes details on how to re-book another date or workshop. While cancellations on our part remain refundable within the specified time period, we do hope you will consider bearing with us in these precarious and trying times, and consider the rescheduled date where possible.

MORE nature connection WORKSHOPS & COURSES at CERES

Photography by Max Roux.

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